The Andrew Project

The Andrew Project

Every so often an idea comes along that is so remarkable that people everywhere are upset they didn't come up with it first. Usually it's the simple things—the everyday things we take for granted—that become the things we can't live without. The paper clip, for example, or the calculator, the light bulb, or the cell phone; some are straightforward, some are highly technical. But they all have one thing in common: someone looked at their world and thought of a way to make it better. What starts as a simple idea has the potential to reshape the way we live, work, and even think. In the 1980s, researchers at Carnegie Mellon envisioned an academic computing environment that would do just that, and consequentially changed the face of higher education forever.

Since its founding in 1900, Carnegie Mellon has flourished because of the inspiration and innovation of its people. Everyone connected to the school has helped transform it into a world-renowned university committed to students, practical research, and education. And each successive administration has set a new paradigm for academic progress.

The university's sixth president, Richard Cyert, championed the Andrew project as "perhaps the most significant development in higher education in the twentieth century." Named in honor of university founders Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon, the Andrew project linked thousands of computers on campus to make Carnegie Mellon the first university to have a completely wired campus.